Road to Recovery

The journey of recovery feels like a never ending car ride. You say “are we there yet?” every five minutes. You are so car sick that you miss the beautiful scenery that is passing you by. You have to get out of the car multiple times just to stretch your legs and catch a breath of fresh air. There is construction, detours, traffic jams, and winding roads. You feel like you will never get to your destination. You stop and start. Stop and start again. Which got me thinking about all of the things we have to stop and start on the journey of recovery. Recovery is just that – a life long journey – there is no final destination. However, there are things we can do to make the journey a little easier along the way.

What do we have to stop? We need to stop and take a breath and remember that our worth is not directly related to our appearance. We need to stop believing the lie that we aren’t pretty enough, smart enough, good enough. We need to stop commenting on other peoples bodies. We need to stop comparing our bodies. We need to stop being afraid to speak up and use our voice. We need to stop being afraid to take up space. We need to stop numbing and escaping our feelings. We need to stop hiding our struggles. The silence is helping nobody.

We start by learning to love ourselves. A task that is easier said than done. A task that takes time, patience, and a lot of hard work. What else makes us worthy and valuable besides our appearance? Our minds, talent, souls. We need to start believing we are enough just the way we are . We start by building each other up. There is room for all of us to succeed. We start by telling our inner critic to shut the hell up. We start by being vulnerable and talking about our feelings, instead of hiding them in an attempt to appear “perfect.” Perfect is boring. We start by celebrating all of the the things that make us wonderfully unique. We start by obsessing about the things we love about ourselves. We start by having a conversation. It is the only thing that will release the shame and guilt that perpetuates the vicious cycle. No one is exempt from eating disorders and body image struggles. You don’t have to share your story with the whole world, just start with one person. Shame feeds eating disorders. Vulnerability cures them. Break the silence.

Something’s Gotta Give is a constructive exposé of the true barriers we face in overcoming eating disorders, in really getting to the other side of this disease. It’s a call for meaningful change, for urgent action. On everyone’s part.